Influence Politics and Meet the Man of Your Dreams
by The Geek Princess
Summary: So my best friend and I thought we'd have ourselves a nice, normal girls' night.  But all the sudden a flying mouse and my exact double break into my parents' house.  Well, maybe this is for the best.  We could use some excitement.
1. Bizarro You from the Electroid Dimension

**So here we go...A new story from the Geek Princess. Apparently, I'm not dead. I know I'm not the first to novelize a dating sim, but I hope I can entertain a few people with this little story of mine!**

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So this is the first page of my diary, huh? Well, I guess it's good I found this lying around. When this is all said and done, it'll be nice to have proof that this isn't a dream.

Before I go any further, though, I think some introductions are in order. My name is Nicole Green, ace college student, ace comic book geek, ace gamer, and hopefully one day, ace writer. I've gotten quite used to people calling me Nickey, though. And I'm a Psces, for what it's worth.

Joining me in my adventuring party in this RPG we call life is my best friend Michelle Kent, otherwise known as Mickey. She's an aspiring artist, kind of the Steve Ditko to my Stan Lee. Except without the militant objectivism and the partnership-crushing creative differences. She was born during the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

The two of us have been best friends since we were little girls. I can't remember a time when we weren't together. Well, that's a lie; I can, I just choose not to. Those were not fun times.

Our period of inseparability ended after our high school graduation. I was going off to the city to study at X University, while she was staying back in our hometown and attending Y Community College. That's not to say we completely left each other behind. We still talk on the phone and online as much as humanly possible. And then we have breaks, when I come back to the suburbs and we get to do some actual hanging-out.

Specifically, this little adventure of ours began on Spring break of our sophomore year of college. And we were having a blast!

Now I know what you're thinking, and no, it wasn't one of those kind of Spring breaks. I'm afraid the two of us just aren't cool enough to be invited to any wild drunken beach parties. No, we were in the gameroom at my parents' house, blazing through Book II of _Legacy of Ys_. And, as seems to be a prerequisite for me and dungeon-crawling, my love life invariably gets brought up.

"So how are things going with Mr. Perfect?" Mickey asked.

I nearly drop my DS in shock at the mention of my boyfriend. "Mr. Perfect...isn't."

"What're you talking about? Of course he is!" Mickey insisted. "He's rockin' that Poindexter look we both love, he's obviously really smart, he's the president of the gaming club at your school...Girl, he took you to Barnes and Noble for your second date!"

"Yeah, well...The guy that I've been gushing to you about since you met him at YukiCon apparently isn't the same guy I've been dating."

"Wow, someone sounds bitter! What went down?"

"You think you know a guy, Mickey. You think you've got a connection with a guy. You think you've got such a connection to this guy that you're willing to overlook the fact that he said his spirit animal would be an octopus if he were into that kind of thing. But then he gets all passive-aggressive on you; starts pushing for more than you're ready to give, and insinuating you're only gonna ever get anywhere on your looks." As I spoke, I began getting so angry that I was coming close to shaking my DS each time I slashed at an enemy.

"Oh my God, Nickey!" Mickey gasped. "I'm so sorry!"

"You haven't heard the deal-breaker," I said. "He actually implied that he wanted to do...things to me involving tentacles."

"But you told him your hangups with stuff like that like, before you two even started dating!"

"You know that, and I know that. Apparently, he forgot," I huffed.

"So what're you gonna do?"

"Already done it. I broke the hell up with him the Friday before I came home."

"Awww..." Mickey pouted. "I wanted to get in on the breakup action."

"Maybe next time," I said.

"But seriously, I've been there and back. Good for you for nipping him in the bud."

I nodded. "Thank you. And we totally need to have some post-breakup celebration later."

"No doubt," Mickey said. "Maybe we could go to the comic store and pick up some guys, now that we're both single again."

I shrugged. "Eh, I don't know if that's me right now. I mean, don't get me wrong, I won't say no if some cute guy's interested, but I won't be lookin' for a while."

"Oh, come ooooon," Mickey said. "You gotta have some ideal of what you want now that you've gotten out of a disaster of a relationship. Maybe someone younger?"

I gasped, beginning to blush. "Mi-Mick, you know I'm not into shota!"

Mickey rolled her eyes. "Suuuure you aren't. Now what were you saying about Carlos from the Magic School Bus?"

"Agh!" I lashed my foot out at her, missing by a couple of inches. "What about you and Xiaolang Li?"

"Okay, okay, fair enough," she said. "I wasn't even talking that young, anyway. I mean, think back to high school. Who were your two favorite boyfriends?"

"Well that's easy. Kevvy and Mike, from junior year."

"Who were both freshmen when you dated them."

"Yeah, but...they were both diamonds in the rough. They were so sweet and quiet and intelligent...Younger guys are usually all immature and pervy and stuff."

"So was the guy you just broke up with, and he was six years older than you. Even if you did get an immature younger guy, he'd at least be acting his age." She smirked. "Besides, when younger guys do start acting mischevious, the fun is all in punishing them for being such bad boys."

"Oh my God, are you projecting, Mickey? Is someone becoming a cougar before her time?"

"Hell no! You know what kind of guy I like. He's gotta be really smart and cool, with a sweet pair of glasses."

"You just dexcribed what I just broke up with."

"Without all the pervyness and misogyny."

"Yeah, well, this time around, I know what I'm gonna be looking for."

"A man who cuts to the chase and just starts hitting on you?"

"Oh my God, you don't even know what you're talking about! The only man I've known who can pull off being a shameless flirt without getting an immediate 'Hell no' from me is the Amazing Nightcrawler, who, unfortunately for me, is not real." I sighed. "Seriously, though, I really want someone really sweet and gentle; you know, a guy who's not afraid to show his emotions and stuff, but one that's willing to stand up and protect me when it's called for."

"So you want a big brother," Mickey smirked.

"Hell no! We do not roll with incest up in here!" I cried.

"I kid, I kid," she assured me. "So you're looking for a guy that you can bring home to the parents?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not ask for miracles here," I said. "I mean, my mom, sure, but I think Daddy'll only be happy if I brought home like, my school's quarterback or basketball team captain or some other guy I'm never gonna actually meet."

Mickey shrugged. "More likely than what you described. I mean, seriously, you'd think you'd realize that guys that perfect don't exist."

"I can hope!" I protested. "Besides, look at you, miss Tall Dark and Dorky."

She sighed. "You're right. Maybe we're better off marrying the guys we used to have LAN parties with in middle school. I mean, at least you have Max; he was so crushing on you."

I looked up from my DS, my face a stony glare. "No." Elaborating, "You know how I feel as a rule about the childhood friend cliché. It's trite and disturbingly overdone in our society's media. And it has some creepy incestuous overtones to it, to boot. Besides, I set things straight with Max four years ago, in case you don't remember."

"Just a suggestion," she said defensively. "So we gonna go out for our night on the town any time soon?"

"I wanna finish up this dungeon. We'll go as soon as we find the—"

"Boss door!" Mickey exclaimed upon sighting our target. We quickly saved and entered.

"Oh my God, what is that?" I cried.

"Who cares what it is? Commence the killin'!" Mickey immediately started shooting fireballs at the giant skull-head.

"Too close for magic; switching to swords." I got in close and started slicing at the thing, until it opened its mouth. "Eee! Now it's shooting some worm...snake...What the heck is this thing?"

"I dunno, but it just killed you,"

"Avenge me, my sister!"

And several shots of magic later, she did, by the skin of her avatar's teeth.

"All right!" I high-fived her over our game systers before we saved once more and shut them off. "Now we can leave." I reached behind me to grab my purse. "Where did I...?" I groped around the couch for a few minutes before remembering, "Duh! I left my purse in my room. Be right back." I sashayed down the hall, singing as I went. "We're going to the comic store. There'll be cute nerdy boys galore. Don't got a boyfriend anymore. Me and my girl are gonna score. WHOA!"

I guess it worked that 'whoa' was the next word in the song I was spontaneously parodying, but I was seriously was surprised. Well, you would be too if you were just innocently walking into your bedroom when some chick in a dress and some floaty-mouse-thing fell out of your closet.

"We did it, Princess~!" the floaty mouse thing said. "We made it to the other world unharmed~!"

The girl got up, rubbing her back tenderly. "Speak for yourself, Kip..."

When I saw her face, I cried out, but couldn't think of much to say.

The woman looked exactly like me. Well, her hair was a bit longer, and she didn't have glasses, but hair color, eye color, facial structure...She was an exact duplicate!

"What the f...Who are...?"

"Oh!" My double acknowledged me, curtsying. "I am Princess Nicolea Crown of the Flower Kingdom. Very pleased to make your acquaintance."

I stuck out my hand. "Umm...Nicole Green. Call me Nickey."

The princess looked confused at my gesture for a few seconds before the little mouse thing flew in between us."And my name is Kip Hamoon Sallon the 777th!"

The princess pushed Kip gently out of the way. "My tutor. Just call him Kip."

"The 777th? Isn't that a bit ludicrous?" I asked.

"Ah!" Kip's face brightened. "It's actually quite a fascinating story! It—"

"Can we skip to the part where y'all decided it'd be a great idea to bust out of my closet?"

"Hey, Nickey, are we goin' or what?" Mickey entered the room, but stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of my unwelcome guests. She turned to me and murmured, "Why is there a furry and a clone in your room?"

"They were just about to explain," I told her. Turning back to the princess and Kip, I continued. "Weren't you guys?"

"...Who is she?" the princess asked.

"She?" I glanced at Mickey. "She is Michelle Kent, my best friend in the whole world. Anything you can say to me you can say to her."

"Okay..." the princess sighed. "You see, every year, my father hosts a party called the Ball in Saint-Lyon. He keeps playing up the importance of this year's ball, and how it's imperative that I dance at it, but...I can't dance."

"So the princess and I searched for the loooongest time for a solution—and we found one!" Kip continued.

The princess proudly displayed a rather archaic-looking key. "This key is the solution to our problems. When used on a door, it will create a portal to the corresponding location in an alternate world. And fortune of fortunes, you're here when we need you most!" She said this next part rather quickly, like verbal fine print. "I need you to take my place for a month."

"What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up! Why should I do anything for you people? I don't even know you! And you're all breaking and entering in my parents' house!"

"Pleeeease, please, please, please!" the princess begged. "I can't dance to save my life! And I'm no good with princes!"

"Princes?" I repeated.

"Did she say princes?" Mickey's face brightened.

The princess nodded. "Six of them. I'm supposed to choose one to dance with."

"Hmm...An alternate universe where I'm a princess...And six princes...Are they handsome princes?"

"I would imagine so..." the princess said.

"Well, I do suppose flirting with six handsome princes is preferable to going back to school next week and dealing with statistics class...Okay, I'll do it!" Mickey's jaw dropped, before I added "On one condition."

"Yes, yes, name it!" the princess, sonding rather grateful, nodded.

I glanced back at Mickey. "My girl Mickey has to come with me."

Mickey's face brightened, but the princess and Kip looked unsure.

I placed my hands on my hips, noting their expressions. "Mickey and I've done practically everything together; shared practically everything. We both had dreams of going off to a magical world and being princesses, and now that it's actually happening, I'm not about to leave her behind. Especially when she's been wanting this even more than me."

The princess mirrored my stance. "My father will notice that there are two princesses."

"Leave that to me. I'm excellent at talking authority figures down. One of the powers associated with being a teacher's pet." When she didn't back down, I played my trump card. "Listen. Your daddy's party is kinda resting on my shoulders, right? I don't go, you have to dance. You dance, you fail. And I will not go without my friend."

The princess huffed. "Fine. Let's hope that you're as good with words as you say you are..."

I smiled and winked. "I won't disappoint!" I turned to Mickey. "Ready?"

"You know it!" The two of us fist-bumped.

"Kip..." The princess looked at her tutor pleadingly. "Do what you can."

Kip nodded, then turned to us. "This way, ladies." He opened the door to my closet, revealing what looked like a big swirly screensaver.

The two of us nodded to each other, before running into the portal, only barely aware of Kip crying "Hey~! You're supposed to wait for me~!"

We came out on the other side in a very lavishly-decorated bedroom, done up in a very aesthetically-pleasing pastel pink theme.

"Wow..." I gasped. "Sweet room..."

Mickey ran to the window. "Wow! This place is beautiful!"

I joined her, taking in the picturesque scenery and people dressed like Ren Fest regulars. "Wowee...You're telling me! Just like in those fantasy novels we were obsessed with in the fifth grade!"

The smile fell from Mickey's face. "Except for the people in fursuits."

"Ack!" I cried out upon noticing them. "Why here too?"

"Why are you both so surprised? Of course they're wearing suits! And dresses too."

We both turned around, shocked, to see Kip floating before us, folding his stubby little arms.

"Thanks for waiting for me, by the way," he said sarcastically. "Anyway, don't animals in your world talk and walk upright?"

"Well not really..." I began.

"There are people who dress up and pretend to be animals..." Mickey said.

"Really?" Kip asked. "Well here, animals naturally walk and talk just like humans."

"...Well this'll take some getting used to," I said.

And now there are people knocking at my door. Apparently, we're supposed to get ready for some big party. Like, right now. I'll write more afterwards!

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**Well, what'cha think? I hope I can get some feedback on this one! I might also wanna make this a bit interactive. I already know the guys I want for the girls, but if there are any scenarios anyone wants me to put into prose or any possible pairings that might happen, mention it in a review! Also, I'll definitely need y'all's help in future chapters, since I might be taking this story in some weird directions. But until then, this is the Geek Princess, signing out!**


	2. Thirty Days and Counting

**Once again, here I am with Chapter 2! Thanks for harvestfactory15 for reviewing. Reviews make me feel special. Now, less talk, more story!

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Okay, party over. And what a party it was, let me tell ya!

Okay, so those guys knocking at my door I mentioned in my last entry? Mor floaty mouse things. I swear, what the heck is up with all these floaty mousey people?

Anyway, they kinda wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. Or Mickey, for that matter. Though they didn't seem too alarmed by their presence.

They all started fussing over us. Well, mostly me, but Mickey wasn't exactly spared. One of them had the nerve to ask why I was dressed like a harlot, and it's like, oh no he didn't. The miniskirt I was sporting was definitely kinda sexy, but in a classy way. If I were a more violent person, you can bet his ass would've been out the window. So Kip gives me and Mickey both tiaras.

"Kip? I hate to tell ya, but jewelry isn't going to change the fact that we're dressed like harlots." I glared at the little bastard that had called me such as I said this.

"No~! Just trust me and put them on~!" Kip said.

The two of us looked at each other, shrugged, and did as we told.

There was a blue flash, a slight dizziness, and we were both in awesome poofy dresses.

"Classic," I said, looking myself over. "Total classic. Like Hime-chan no Ribon."

"For real," Mickey agreed. "It's like...if the Disney princesses were classic magical girls."

"Wouldn't that be like, Kingdom Hearts?" I asked.

"Nah, they were more like McGuffins in Kingdom Hearts," Mickey said.

"But girl, I saw some pretty sweet fanart of them as magical girls once. Well, it was more like American superheroes or magical girl warriors, but you feel me."

"OhmyGod, I need to draw my own Disney Princess Magical Girls now!" Mickey shrieked.

"Girls~! Not now~!" Kip shouted. "The King is gonna want to see you right away!" He floated off, muttering about me being just as easily-distracted as the real princess.

Apparently, the King had been worried about Bizarro-Princess-Me for a while now. She had apparently been gone for a couple days before entering the closet portal. And once again, while we were being ushered off to see him, no one really minded Mickey's presence, and were in fact, ushering her off along with me.

"Okay, so we got our story straight?" I asked Mickey in a whisper.

"I'm an old friend you met in boarding school. You were gonna run away, but ran into me and I convinced you to stay," she responded.

"All right. Now let's just hope it works."

And we soon approached the king, who was an old, stout guy with a ridiculous beard. The kind of classic king look that didn't lend itself to having realistically produced a nubile daughter. Thinking of him as 'Dad' was going to be a challenge for me, since my father was a clean-shaven, middle-aged businessman that was just starting to go gray.

Still, I mustered up the experience I had from taking drama as a middle school elective and said "Father! It's so good to see you!"

"And you, my daughter." He nodded to Mickey. "As well as you, my dear niece Mishella."

Crap! There was a Bizarro-Mickey! That threw my whole story! Oh, I never was good at improv...I cleared my throat and said, "Yes, uhh...That's where I was, visiting my dearest cousin Mishella!"

The king raised his bushy eyebrows, the only indication of switching expression visible under his obscene amount of facial hair. "I was under the impression that you girls hated each other..."

"Oh, petty girlish squabbles," Mickey said, putting her arm around me. "Blood is thicker than water, after all."

"Ah, good, good. So tell me, how is my cousin, Duke Anklet?"

And he pronounced "Anklet" with an "ah" sound on the "A" so it sounded like "Onkled." I was so very tempted to say "Under attack by the evil forces of Ganon," but I restrained myself and gave a weak, "He's...good."

Mickey saved us. "He's doing quite fine, Your Majesty! He sends his deepest regrets at not being able to join us, but has given me permission to stay in the capital for the Ball in Saint-Lyon."

"Ah, wonderful!" the King said. "Perhaps you will be able to woo one of our visiting princes as well!"

"And with that," I said, grabbing Mickey by the arm, "we should go introduce ourselves to them! Seeya, Daddy!" And we high-tailed it to the other side of the banquet hall before anything else could be said. The both of us knew it, I think, that even with as good as things were going, one slip-up would ruin the whole facade.

"I can't believe that worked out so well!" Mickey giggled.

"I know!" I giggled right back.

"So what do you say we find some of those princes, like for real?" Mickey said.

I spotted some of the dishes of food being carried out to the tables. "Better idea. This food looks freakin' delicious. Let's get some first."

"No time! Here comes one of the prrinces now!" Kip cried, popping up out of seemingly nowhere.

I cried out, and Mickey and I clung to each other in shock.

"Was he here the whole time?" she asked.

But before any more could be said on the subject of Kip's ninja skills, a young blond boy approached us with quick, bold strides. We released each other just as he reached us and said "Yo! Which one of you is the princess around here?"

I hesitated, and cleared my throat. "That'd be me." I tried to put on princessly airs, and started to dip into a curtsy. "It's a pleasure to—"

"My name's Vincent Wright!" he interrupted me. "You can call me Vince, though."

I froze mid-curtsy, shocked at the little brat's brashness. Straightening up, I began, "I'm Princess Nicolea, and this is my cousin, Lady Mishella."

"You can call us Nickey and Mickey, though," Mickey said. "It's nice to meet you, Vince."

"Nice to meet you too, Nickey-and-Mickey!" Vince grinned cheekily. He glanced around the ballroom. "So this palace of yours is pretty big. Which one of you wants to show me around?"

"Nickey," Mickey said instantly, earning her a glare from me. "It's her castle, after all. Besides, she's totally into younger men."

"Gah!" I blushed, waving my hands in front of me. "Ma-Maybe I should ask my father first, before I start giving out guided tours."

"Oh no problem, I'll ask him for you!" Vince said before darting off.

"No wait, I—" But he was gone. I lightly socked Mickey in the arm. "Nice going, miss Matchmaker. I don't know if you noticed, I'm nineteen and he's like, what, fourteen?"

"Quit lying about your age, Nickey, you know you just turned twenty," Mickey said.

"That just makes it worse!" I cried. I gathered my skirts and walked off, eyes closed and nose in the air. "If you'll excuse me, I'm off to find a real man."

"Well then you're in luck, my princess, because here I am!"

I opened my eyes and immediately fell back, crying out in shock. There getting all up in my grill was this purple-haired foppish-looking guy holding out a rose to me.

"Aa...Aaaah! What is this? Who the heck are you?"

"It is I, Prince Cesar Dubois of the Sea Republic, the only man worthy of a rose like you."

"Nick-ey, who's the new guy you—" Mickey spoke as she approached, but stopped once she got a good look at Cesar. "Oh damn, he's gay."

I got up, and shoved her at him. "Here! She's more of your rose type! Now if you two will excuse me..." I stormed off, but was jarred when someone bumped into me from the left side.

"Hey, watch it!" the guy that bumped into me shouted. I turned and saw that he was another prettyboy, clad in a black suit with an orange ascot.

"You watch it, jerkwater!" I snapped back. "Your ass bumped into me!"

"Oh!" He calmed down. "Yeah, I guess I did..." And he left, looking more than a bit embarrassed.

"Wow..." I muttered to myself. "I never knew being so mean could get results..."

"Watch what you say, Princess!" Once again, Kip turned up beside me. "That was Prince Luciano Barbossa of the Garadium Kingdom!"

"Hey, isn't Mickey just as much your responsibility as I am?"

"Technically? She's yours. I'm just in charge of the princess. Besides, she's—"

"Present and accounted for," Mickey said, rejoining us.

"So, did Prince Cesar show you the ways of love?" I teased, leaning close and batting my eyes.

"I told you, I think he's gay," Mickey said.

"Really? I wasn't getting that vibe," I said.

"Your gaydar's broken, remember? Anyway, he told me to tell you that you missed your chance with him. Apparently, Bizarro-Nickey rejected him earlier," Mickey said.

"Hmph," I said. "Well from what I've seen, this banquet hall's filled with the same kinds of losers and degenerates my suitemates are always bringing home. There has to be a worthwhile guy around here somewhere."

"I see one!" Mickey pointed to a silver-haired, bespectacled young man, who was practicing his sullen, brooding pose all by his lonesome in the corner. "Dibs!" she shouted before running to him.

"...Do I know you?" he asked.

"Not yet, but I propose we fix that. I'm Lady Mishella, daughter of Duke Bracelet," Mickey fake-introduced herself.

"Isn't the local duke's name Anklet?" he asked.

"Yeah, that one," she said nervously.

"...Right. Anyway, why are you talking to me?" he asked.

"I'm just a friendly person," she said. Moving closer, "You seem like the type I'd like to get really friendly with."

Not wanting to see any more embarrassingly out of character behavior from Mickey, I went off on my own. Well, as on my own as I could be with Kip tagging along.

"I have never seen Mickey act so...forward. Who is that guy that's got her so bedazzled and what exactly are his witchy powers?"

"That was Prince Kiefer Bergmann of the Nezzle Empire," Kip replied. "He's famously very intelligent, but very aloof."

"Ah," I nodded. "Now I see what she sees in him."

"Now you see? Your friend's found someone she likes! Why do you have to be so picky?" Kip demanded.

"I consider it a character strength," I said. "Besides, the princess said there are six princes, right? That means I've only met four of my six candidates. Surely one of the last two is the one I want."

At that point, our walking stopped. We had come upon a huge crowd of people. Fortunately, I was used to shouldering through seemingly-impassible crowds from my days attending a crowded high school. Sliding my left foot back and squaring my torso in something that almost resembled a fighting stance, I nodded to Kip. "Stick close, little guy," I said before beginning to muscle my way through to the other side of the large people-cluster, muttering "Pardon me," repeatedly as I went.

About halfway through, I was stopped by the sound of a feminine voice shrieking "Hey, what're you trying to pull?"

I turned to see the girl addressing me was a blue-haired girl holding onto the arm of a rather handsome young man in white. His other arm was occupied by a pink-haired girl who had apparently tried and failed to put her hair in dreds.

The blue-haired girl spoke again. "You can't get close to Prince Klaus! Not when he was just about to take me for a walk through the gardens!"

"Nuh-uh!" her friend with horrible hair said. "Prince Klaus was about to take me to the opera!"

"Prince Who-now?" I addressed Kip.

"Prince Klaus Rosencrans of the Lamor Republic," he responded. "Very popular with the ladies. Especially Princesses Lauren and Brenda, as you can see."

Lauren and Brenda had, in the short time I hadn't been paying attention to them, escalated their argument into a full-on catfight, with poor little Prince Guildenstern caught in the middle.

I had to do something. They were gonna rip that poor boy to shreds if I didn't. And, well, I just hate seeing friends fighting over a guy.

"Ladies, ladies, please!" I attempted to separate them as best I could. "Chicks before dicks!"

Lauren and Brenda stopped, looking very confused.

"What do chickens have to do with anything?" Lauren, the one with horrible hair, asked.

Brenda, her rude little friend, responded with a question of her own. "What does she mean, 'dicks?'"

And with Lauren and Brenda distracted, I lost myself in the crowd, only barely hearing their boytoy call out "Thank you!"

"Whew!" I sighed, once I was safely out of the crowd. "I never knew girl drama could be so scary!"

"You mean you never had to deal with it?" Kip asked.

"Nah. Mickey and I were always pretty chill. So were the other girls we hung out with. Drama was kept to a minimum," I explained. "Anyway, I've had quite enough excitement for one night. Where's a girl go to relax around here?"

"Well, there's the flower garden, right over there," Kip said. He motioned to an open archway leading to an outside area covered in beautiful flowers.

"Hm. That sure does look relaxing. I think I'll partake," I said, before walking out into the gardens.

And there was little Vince, chatting it up with a very, very handsome young man.

And do I mean handsome! He had such a sweet face, with thick, soft-looking green hair and lovely, soulful eyes. The same kind of eyes I remember my first love having. Barring the detail that his were brown and this new guy's were green.

"What—umm...What're y'all doing?" I managed to stammer out.

"Eh, I think Liam here found some rare flower or something," Vince shrugged.

"A malkid flower," the handsome man, apparently named Liam, corrected him. "Isn't it lovely? It's only indigenous to this region, so this is truly a treat to see one up close and personal."

Vince sighed. "Yeah, a real treat...God, how is this not boring? Screw this, I'm going for ice cream."

And he left. Which suited me perfectly. I think. I mean, I was totally nervous. Which is weird. I haven't been nervous around boys in years. I thought I cured myself of that back in my freshman year of high school.

"I don't believe we've been properly introduced," Liam said. "I am Liam Goodrich of the Green Kingdom." And then he took my hand and kissed it.

I think I was blushing at that point. He was sp polite and reserved, and yet so warm and inviting...This was too good to be true. Cue disaster in three...two...one...

But nothing happened. Even Kip seemed to have disappeared. We just stood there, the moonlight shining down into our hair and the lanterns along the path casting a glow on our cheeks, my hand still in his.

Liam broke the silence. "...And what is...your name, Princess?"

"Ni-Nickey," I said instantly, drawing my hand back. "I mean Nicole...Nicolea. Of the Flower Kingdom. But I guess you know I'm from the Flower Kingdom, huh? I mean, my dad is hosting this party and this is my castle and all. Yeah, uhh..."

"So Nicolea, then?" he asked.

"...Friends call me Nickey," I said softly.

"All right, then, Nickey," he said with a warm smile.

I coughed. "So, uhh...You...You like flowers, huh?"

Liam nodded. "They're my passion. I love growing them, researching them...Even just standing back and admiring their beauty."

I smiled. This guy really was the one I was looking for. "So what's your favorite flower, then?"

"Oh, I love every one," Liam said wistfully. "What about you? Do you have a favorite?"

"Umm..." A question I had never really thought of. Sure, he couldn't have asked me something simple, like favorite superhero or favorite piece of classic satire. "I guess I like lilies."

"Oh really?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," I nodded. The rest seemed to kind of come out naturally. I seriously have no idea where I got it. "I guess I could say rose, but I think that like, everyone says that when asked about their favorite flower. Lilies have this sort of subtle, delicate beauty about them. They're not in your face about it. They're just...naturally that way..."

Liam nodded, and it may've been a trick of the light, but I think I saw a slight blush cross his face. "Then the next time we meet, Lady Nickey, I'll have the prettiest lily I can find for you."

"You're sweet," I said. There was something I was supposed to ask him, right? Right, I was looking for a partner for that ball.

'Ask him! Aaaaaaask hiiiiiiiim!' a voice inside me was screaming.

But I'm not that forward. I mean, how weird is it to just go up to a guy you just met and be like, "Hey, wanna commit to being my date for this super-big party and getting all touchy-feely with me in front of my dad and all my subjects?" Instead, I shot for the less-committal, "So you wanna head inside? They should be starting dinner soon. You...You can sit with me if you like..."

"I would," he assured me. He held out his arm, and I tentatively looped my own arm through it. I relaxed when he didn't shatter or explode at my touch, and he escorted me inside.

It wasn't like in the movies. The music didn't stop. Everyone didn't drop what they were doing and turn to look at us. No girls were looking on jealously. But for the first time since I got there, I felt like an actual, honest-to-God fairytale princess.

"Well, this is a relief." And once again, Kip popped up beside me.

"Aww, it was just gettin' kinda nice not having you here," I said.

"I figured you and the Prince needed some alone time," Kip said.

"How generous. So where were you?"

"Oh I was still there. I just didn't make my presence known."

"And you don't do this more often why?"

"So you don't like it when I follow you around, Princess~?" he said.

"No, Kip. I really don't," I said.

"That's why," he said with a smirk.

"Nickey! Niiiickey!" Mickey ran towards me, on Kiefer's arm. Well, okay, that's not really accurate. She was more dragging Kiefer by the arm.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I—" he began before his "date" cut him off.

"So I see you found yourself a man," she said.

I nodded. "Yup! Mickey, this is Prince Liam Goodrich of the kingdom of Green. Liam, my cousin Mishella Anklet."

"A pleasure to meet you, milady," Liam said with a bow.

"And this," Mickey said, gesturing to Kiefer, "is Kiefer Bergmann of the Nezzle Empire. Kiefer? My cousin and very good friend, Princess Nicolea Crown."

"Nice to meet you." I curtsied, satisfied that I finally seemed to be getting used to this princess thing.

"Indeed," Kiefer said with a curt bow.

Liam nodded to him. "Kiefer and I have already been introduced before."

"Indeed," Kiefer repeated, sounding a bit more annoyed this time.

"So let's all sit together!" I gushed, hugging Liam's arm.

"That sounds wonderful," Liam said.

"Definitely!" Mickey agreed.

"Hmph," Kiefer grunted.

* * *

"So what is it that you like to do, Princess?" Liam asked once we were all seated comfortably and served.

"Me?" I asked. "Oh, I dabble a bit in writing..."

"Dabble?" Mickey scoffed. "That's all you've done since we were little kids!" To Liam, "She's really good, though."

"Oh, really? Poetry or prose?" Liam asked.

"Mostly prose," I said, "but I've done poetry before. Not well, mind you. And really, a lot of the stories I write are about people with magical powers from far away lands, fighting for justice against evil forces."

"Or gangsta tentacle monsters," Mickey piped up.

"You just had to bring that one up," I hissed.

"It sounds fascinating," Liam said. "Maybe I could read something you've written one day?"

I blushed. 'Ma-Maybe..." Looking for a change in subject, I turned to Mickey and Kiefer. "Kiefer! Maybe you could look at some of Mickey's art? She's been drawing and painting about as long as I've been writing. She's almost always drawn illustrations for the stories I've written."

"Yeah, I'll do that," Kiefer said before looking away.

"So what do you like, Kiefer?" Mickey chirped.

"Solitude," Kiefer said simply.

At that point, the King stood up from his position at the head of the table, clanking a spoon against his goblet to quiet everyone.

"I hope you all have enjoyed this evening's festivities," he began. "Before we all retire for the evening, Prince Klaus and Princess Cynthia shall close out the evening with a dance."

He sat down, and all eyes turned to the prince in white that was being fought over earlier and a very pretty blond girl. He bowed, she curtsied, and they came together so naturally.

I wondered if I'd ever have a partner that I'd fit so well with. I wondered if it would be Liam...But instead of saying any of that and potentially embarrassing myself, I settled on "They're good."

Shortly after the dance, the festivities ended, and Mickey and I were ushered away from the boys and back to our rooms by Kip.

And with that, there's nothing more to say. I'll write again tomorrow. First dance lesson should be exciting. I think...

* * *

**And that does it for the opening party. This was actually really fun to write! And I hope y'all can guess whom I intend to pair our fearless heroines up with at this point. Or at the very least, whom I intend to pair Nickey with. But I don't intend for our girls to hog all the romantic subplots, so look out for the other characters maybe getting some! And, like I said before, reviews are important! If there's anything you might like to see in this story, mention it in a review, and it will at the very least be seriously considered, unless it conflicts with the plot skeleton I have set up. Until next time, your lovely Geek Princess bids you adieu!**


	3. Boring, boring, BORING!  Oh, and Cesar

**Back by dope demand (and by "dope," I mean "two people like this story,") here's the third chapter of my thing! Thanks again to harvestfactory15 and to my newest reader, Bree-Bee233. Y'all are sweeties. Now here we go, no more waiting!

* * *

**

So my first night as a princess, I dreamt I was in statistics class. Except Professor Darzi was dressed as the Scarlet Witch. And the test had something to do with deflecting bullets. It was freakin' scary.

I think that's why I woke up and thought that I was in my dorm and it was Tuesday.

Anyway, someone was knocking at my door. I barked, "Hold yer horses, I'm coming!" and slipped into the miniskirt and babydoll tee that I had discarded haphazardly at the foot of my bed the night before. I yawned, and the forst thing I could think to say upon opening the door was "You're too short to be my RA..."

Kip bonked me on the head with the wand thing he always seemed to be carrying. "I am not your 'Array!' I don't even know what that is! it's me, Kip! You know, your tutor?"

I blinked. Oh yeah, there was that. The princess and the closet-portal and the fancy party and the princes...It was all coming back to me. Especially Liam. He was nice...

So I was totally woken up by this point. But just to annoy Kip, I yawned again and said "No class, then? Okay. Back to sleep."

He wedged himself between the door and the frame, holding it open with surprising strength. "No~! Your first dance lesson is today!"

"Dance lesson?" I repeated.

"Yes, dance lesson!" Kip shouted. "Remember? The whole reason you're here? God, you're even more dense than the real princess!"

"I'm sorry, this whole dancing thing just seems so...frivolous," I said.

"Frivolous?" Kip shouted once more, practically screeching.

"Yes. Frivolous," I repeated. "Extraneous. Tacked-on. That sort of thing."

And I was bonked again. "I know what 'frivolous' means! And I don't care if you think it is! For the next month, I'm stuck with you and that hyperactive friend of yours down the hall, and you are NOT going to screw up this plan, dammit!"

"Okay, okay, whatever!" I held up my hands defensively. "Just...let me get pretty, and we'll go."

"No time!" Kip exclaimed and began dragging me out.

"Hey! What the—?" I cried in protest.

As soon as we were out of my room, the door to the room adjacent to mine opened up and Mickey came running out.

"Little guy's got a lot of strength," she commented, jogging to keep up with Kip's pace.

"You're tellin' me," I said. "So what're you doing up at this ungodly hour?"

"Well I could hear you screaming and cursing through the wall. Statistics nightmare again?"

"Oh yes."

"The one with the jets of fire?"

"Nah. This was the one with the bullets."

"Eeew. I keep telling you to drop that class."

"I knooow, but I need it for core."

"Aaaand here we are~!" Kip sang, coming to a sudden stop and causing me to almost fall forward.

We hadn't gone very far. We were still on the palace grounds. In fact, I could still see my apartments from where we were standing. The building was small, but still just as ornately-decorated as the rest of the buildings on the grounds. We entered, and were greeted with a huge, empty floor with nothing but a few sparsely-placed chairs along the wall.

"So...What, do we practice by ourselves?" Mickey asked, glancing around.

"Or with each other?" I offered. Mickey and I immediately joined hands, and began tango-ing across the room, humming "Habanera" from _Carmen_ as we went.

"Your work ethic is admirable, I can already see," came a new voice, "but your form is off. And we won't cover the tango for a while."

The two of us glanced around, looking for the source of the voice, until we finally looked down and saw a bunny in a top hat and dinner jacket.

"Ohhhhh! How cuuuute!" we both exclaimed at the same time.

"Girls! Mind your manners!" Kip scolded. "This is Toiny, the best dance instructor in all the kingdom!"

"He's the what?" I asked in deadpan.

"How is he supposed to...? He's so small!" Mickey exclaimed.

"Oh! Forgive me!" Tony took a great leap into the air, shouting "Traaaaansfooooorm!" He spun around, and in a poof of smoke, descended once again in a much more anthropomorphized form. But he was still a bunny.

The two of us stared at the much taller, more humanly-proportioned Tony for a few seconds before turning to Kip.

"So what about you, Kip?" Mickey asked.

"What do you mean, what about me?" Kip asked back.

"Can you use magic to transform into something not so shrimpy?" I teased.

He folded his arms. "Like I would for you two!"

"Now, may we get started?" Tony asked.

And he went over some of the technical stuff in dancing, and had us practice a few basic steps. Pretty boring stuff, really. And that's literally all we did. It was so lame. And that's precisely why I waited til today to write.

So today was a little bit more exciting. A little bit. Mickey and I avoided being woken by Kip and went down to the dance hall without him, which was a nice change of pace. However, once we had gotten there, who did we find but Cesar, waiting for us.

"Hello, ladies. Would you care to join me?" he asked, grinning.

"Join you...?" Mickey asked, shrugging.

"He means for a dance," Kip said.

The two of us jumped, and clung to each other.

"When did you get here?" I exclaimed.

"Oh, I've been here," Kip said. "You can't ditch me, you know."

The two of us turned back to Cesar.

"Umm...I think that Mickey...would love to join you for a dance!" I asserted, shoving her forward.

"Ah-ah-ah! Nickey would be most honored!" she insisted, pulling me in front of her.

"Do not throw me in front of this moving train!" I snapped in a whisper.

"I keep telling you, he's gay!" Mickey assured me.

"And what're you gonna do when he's not?" I demanded, aiming a slap for her face.

She blocked, exclaimed "Don't you slap me!" and tried slapping me back. Naturally, this initiated a full-on sissyfight.

"Now, ladies, there's no need to fight over me!" Cesar assured us, though from the look on his face, it was clear he was enjoying it.

"Girls? Are we having lessons today or not?" Tony approached in anthro form.

Our sissyfight immediately ceased.

"Tony!" I exclaimed. "Perfect timing!"

Tony nodded to us, then to Cesar. "Prince Cesar, would you care to join us?"

He bowed. "That I would, sir."

"Wait wait wait what?" the both of us exclaimed.

"Well it would be much faster to have Prince Cesar take one of you than it would for me to have to alternate between the both of you," Tony explained.

"Not it!" I exclaimed, rushing to Tony.

"Hmph." Mickey walked to Cesar, and we began our first dance, a rather simple waltz. It was over rather quickly and painlessly.

"That's it, girls," Tony said once the music had stopped.

"Really?" I blinked. "But...doesn't practice make perfect and all? I mean, we only did one song. I remember when I took ballet in kindergarten, we—"

Mickey grabbed me by the corner of my mouth. "He said we're done, Nickey," she said dangerously before dragging me out.

"Good-bye, Lady Mishella!" Cesar called. "Let us dance the waltz of love again sometime!"

"Jeez, what's up with you?" I exclaimed once we had exited the dance hall.

"You were right about Cesar being straight..." she muttered.

"Huh? What was that, Mickey? I don't think I heard you!" I said, putting my hand to my ear and leaning towards her.

"I don't wanna hear it from you!" she shouted.

"Eh, whatever," I shrugged, and headed off towards the palace.

"Um, I don't know if you've noticed, but our rooms are that way!" Mickey said, pointing in the direction of our apartments.

"I know that," I said, continuing to walk, "but I wanna see if I can track me down some Liam."

"Ooooh!" Mickey immediately perked up. "Maybe Kiefer too?"

"Maybe Kiefer, too," I said, turning around to wink.

"Then I'm coming too!" she said, before quickly catching up with me.

We decided to take the garden entrance, only to find that unlike the night of the banquet, there was a big dog-guard patrolling the area.

"Hey Nickey?" Mickey began.

"Mhm?" I nodded.

"This make you think of that one quest in Ocarina of Time? When you had to sneak past the guards to find the princess?"

"I was kinda thinking more Metal Gear Solid, but now that you mention it, yeah, that's like ten times more appropriate," I said.

"Let's do it right, then!" Mickey said. We fist-bumped, and began stealthily moving from bush to bush, trying our darndest to outmaneuver the guard. We had almost made it, too, when we heard him clear his throat right behind us.

"I'm sorry, my ladies, but I cannot allow you to enter the castle," he said.

I turned around, placing my hands on my hips. "Oh yeah? Is this your house? I don't think so! You can't just tell me what to do! I'm the princess here, not you!"

And, okay, maybe that was rather unbecoming of my position, but he really didn't have to pick us up and physically carry us out of the garden. That was just rude.

Kip was waiting for us when we were dropped at the entrance. Laughing. That little bastard.

"Hello, Kiip," I said, getting back to my feet. "You could've told us the garden was guarded."

"I could've," he said, "but I didn't."

"You little...!" Mickey sprung up, curling her hands into fists, before dropping them and asking, "Wait, why aren't we allowed in the castle again?"

Kip rolled his eyes. "The princes are staying there. Duh."

So we went back to our apartments, and that was the end of it. So far, things in the Flower Kingdom are a lot more boring than I thought they would be. But I hear there's a traveling market coming tomorrow. That should be exciting. I hope.

* * *

**And that's all! I decided to do the first two days in one chapter since, let's face it, there's not much that happens until day 3. I can't wait til next chapter, since we get to introduce a new character, and I get to drop some hints about the other pairings I wanna do! I hope to see y'all then!**


	4. Little Klepto Nobles

**Okay, this was supposed to come out like, a lot sooner, but then real life happened. Tests and papers and being unconscious for most of the previous week can delay stories like you won't believe. That, and this was a longish chapter to write. But it was worth it! I think the story's better for not being released right away! I hope y'all think so too! As always, props to harvestfactory15 and Bree-Bee233, as well as my newest reader, Emiri-Chu. I do this for y'all!**

* * *

"Nickey! Hey, Niiiiickey!"

I woke up this morning to the sound of frantic knocking and a shrill voice calling my name. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I'm not a morning person. And given the events of the past few days, the rude awakening had one name immediately attached to it: Kip.

Not caring that I was only in a pair of panties and a camisole, I stormed to the door, opening it with my left hand and raising my right while curling it into a fist.

"Now you listen to me, you little pipsqueak, if you wanna survive this month with all your teeth, you will—" I dropped my fist upon seeing that it wasn't Kip who had woken me and without missing a beat continued with "Oh hey, Mickey."

She rolled her eyes. "Good morning to you too."

"Sorry, I thought you were Kip," I said. "So why did you wake me? You above all others should know that I hate mornings."

"Well, yeah, that, but don't you remember? The traveling market's here today!" Mickey said.

"Yeah, but like...what's the point? You know there won't be any video games or anime or comic books for us to buy there."

"Hello? People-watching? That's the main reason to go to the mall back home!" Mickey placed her hands on her hips.

"What about junk food?" I asked.

"Okay, fine, second main reason."

"Or the arcade?"

"Third...main reason?"

"Or that hot guy that works at 3D Games?"

"Okay! Fine! It is still _a_ reason we go to the mall! Now get dressed and stop being pedantic!"

"Right," I said before closing my door.

Not wanting to wear the outfit I came in once again (doing so would be tacky), I inspected Bizarro-Nickey's closet for the first time since arriving.

I was surprised at what I found. Though in retrospect I shouldn't have been. The princess did have a number of dresses that didn't require a magical girl transformation, but they were a bit less...vintage than I had imagined. Oh, sure, they looked sort of period-appropriate, but in a sort of Ren-Faire chic kind of way.

I chose a low-cut pink dress with lacy trim on the sleeves and hem, slipped it on, and tied the sash. As I found a cute pair of red slip-on shoes, I was noticing that the ensemble I had put together was rather comfy. It wasn't itchy or coarse, and it breathed amazingly. But like I said, I shouldn't have been surprised. In the few days I've been here, it's been hard to not notice that the technological advancement of th world was just enough to keep the charm of a fantasy world. Sure, most technology was replaced with magic, and there were no cars or TV or phones. Those would break the illusion. On the other hand, they had apparently gotten the hang of indoor plumbing and comfortable clothes, which I was completely cool with.

Now decent, I stepped out of my room and was met with Mickey, wearing a similar Ren-Faire chic style dress, though hers was green with blue trim and a yellow sash, and the pattern was a bit more simple.

"So what about Kip? I mean, we haven't been bothered by him all morning. How is that?" I asked.

"I set up some...distractions for him," Mickey said with a wink. "Now let's go before he finds us."

Of course, we realized as soon as we set out that we were kind of lost outside the palace grounds. Hell, we were lost on the palace grounds. But with the help of some of the denizens of the castle, we were able to track down Samba Square, where the traveling market had set up. Of course, it helped that it was just a short walk west of the castle.

"So I've been meaning to ask," Mickey began, pointing to my dress as we made our way through the square, "what's up with you and wearing pink nowadays?"

"You know very well why I've started wearing pink," I said. "I'm in mourning for the original pink Power Ranger."

Mickey rolled her eyes. "Not that Agony in Pink thing again. It was posted thirteen years before you even found it!"

"And yet, it still haunts my nightmares," I said.

Mickey nodded. "I guess it'd do that, from what you described. But hey, you said the creeper who wrote it's behind bars now, right?"

"No, that's the creeper who wrote that Girls Aloud fanfiction," I said. "The creeper who wrote the Power Rangers story just caused an international incident. Though I do hold out hope that he was put in jail and I just don't know about it."

"Ooooh! Look over here, Nickey!" Mickey cried. She had rushed over to a candy stand.

"Oh hell yes!" I cried, running to join her. But of course, right in the middle of our candy-buying frenzy, someone grabbed us by the backs of our dress collars.

"No no no! We have important things to buy first!"

Okay. I knew that voice. One hundred percent sure this time.

"I thought you got rid of him," I hissed to Mickey.

"So did I," Mickey said.

"I'm not stupid," Kip snapped as he dragged us into a shop across the street. "I knew that summons wasn't really from the king!"

"Oh really? Fooled you for long enough to let us sneak out of the castle," she smirked.

Kip growled, released us just inside the door to the shop, and began screaming, flailing his arms around. "I told the princess this was a bad idea! But would she listen? Nooooo! Well I hope she's happy, because now I'm stuck here with two smart-assed little punks that don't even care what's at stake here! I hope she's just—"

"Umm..." Kip was cut off by the bewildered-looking clerk manning the counter. "May I...help you...?"

There was a beat of awkward silence before Kip was once again all smiles. "Hi~! Umm...Disregard anything you just heard! Princess Crown and her cousin, the young Duchess Anklet, wish to buy some of your fine wares!"

"We do?" I asked Kip.

"Yes, you do," he hissed back.

"Oh, my ladies, you've come just in time!" the saleswoman said, her face brightening. "You'll be some of the first to sample some of the exotic accessories brought in by the traveling market!" She dipped below the counter and brought out two necklaces and a set of ribbons. "These are our finest merchandise, brought from the farthest regions of the globe. For you, Highnesses."

"Oh my God!" Mickey grabbed the ribbons, placing them on the sides of her head. "I've always wanted hair ribbons like this! Nickey, whaddaya think?"

"I think maybe you should put your hair in 'em first," I said, "but they're totally beautiful, Mickey. They look so good with your complexion!"

"Okay! I'm gettin' 'em!" Mickey beamed.

Those were kind of my favorites too, but my hair's too short for pretty Chinese-style ribbons. So I examined the two necklaces. Picking up one with a silver ornament made to look like a seashell on the front, I stared at it and gave off a ponderous "Hmm..."

"Ooooh! It's so pretty, get it, get it, get it!" Mickey exclaimed.

"Yeah, I was kind of thinking about it, but do you think the seashell is a bit...much?"

"Oh, you're always concerned about 'much,'" Mickey said, waving me off. "You'll look great in it, trust me!"

"Okay. I trust you, best friend opinion wins out." I turned to the clerk. "Put me down for this one."

At that moment, the bell above the door rang with a loud, stocatto clang, signalling a customer entering rather forcefully.

"Hey, I was gonna buy that!" The girl that entered, a pink-pigtailed girl that couldn't have been a day over thirteen, was pointing at the necklace I had just decided on. "You think that you can just take whatever you want just 'cause you're the princess! Your daddy gets you whatever you want, but I've been saving up for three whole months! I bet you knew! I bet you just wanted to spite me, you spoiled brat!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, chill out, young pink-haired one!" I held up my hands, then held them out, with the necklace resting on my palms, towards her. "If you want it so bad, I'll be happy to let you have it."

The girl humphed, folding her arms. "Don't patronize me! I am Isabel Zirconium, and I still have my pride!"

"...Zirconium?" I repeated.

"That's right," she said with a haughty smirk. "I'm a noble too, you know. My father, Lord Kubik, has raised me to not accept handouts from anyone. I'm simply too good for that sort of thing." And with that, she left.

The clerk shook her head. "Oh, that girl...Must she always harass the customers?"

"Jeez," I said, looking down at the necklace. "I sure didn't mean to cause any trouble. Poor kid. She couldn't've been older than my sister back home..."

"Oh don't worry about her," Kip said, waving his hand dismissively. "Isabel's always causing trouble. She probably didn't care a thing about that necklace before she saw someone else buying it. She probably has more than enough money for it on one week's allowance, too. Fishing is quite an industry here in the Flower Kingdom, and the Zirconiums tax quite a bit from the fishermen in Rhumba."

"Right. So now that that little bit of drama's over, let's go!" Mickey said.

We left, and I called over my shoulder to the clerk, "Thanks!"

"Well that turned out to be worth our time after all!" Mickey said, admiring her new hair ornaments.

"For real," I said. "I usually hate being told how to shop, but thanks, Kip, that was a really good idea!"

"Of course it was," Kip said with a smug little grin.

"So what do we do next?" I asked

"How 'bout we get some of that candy we were gunning for earlier?" Mickey said. She darted across the street. "Race ya!"

"Hey, no fair, head start!" I called, giggling as I followed.

After we had nearly bought out the candy vendor, the two of us were walking along the street, taking in the sights and looking quite pleased with ourselves, while Kip followed behind grumbling to himself.

"Heeeeey!" We turned to see Vince running to us. "Princess Nickey! Duchess Mickey! Long time no see!"

"Ohhhh, joy..." Mickey grumbled.

"Hey, he's not the prince we wanted to see, but I'm not complaining. The only sane person we've interacted with in the past few days is Tony. I'd take Vince over Cesar or Kip any day," I said.

"Hey~! What's that supposed to mean?" Kip demanded.

"You know exactly what it means, you shrill little furball!" I shouted.

"Shrill? SHRILL?" Kip squeaked.

"So what'cha doin'?" Vince asked, getting back our attention.

"Just wanderin' around," Mickey said.

"Goin' nowhere specific," I added.

"Sounds way fun! I think I'll join ya!" Vince grinned, and without a word of confirmation from us, he joined our adventuring party.

As we were walking along the southwestern part of the market, Vince stretched his arms out. "Ah! I can feel the ocean from here!"

He was right. There was a nice breeze blowing in that felt distinctly ocean-ish. It was sort of calming, however brief.

I closed my eyes and breathed it in. "Ah, memories of my youth..."

"Like the scent of fresh lemon?" Mickey piped up.

I half-opened my eyes, looked at her, and after a beat, said "Shaddup, you."

"Makes me wanna eat some nice fresh tuna!" Vince said. He looked up at us. "What kind of fish do you two like?"

"Umm...Sticks?" Mickey shrugged. I gave her a look, to which she responded with "Well you're the one that eats sushi and all that crap. It never appealed to me."

I put my hands behind my head. "I'd say it's a tie between eel and crawdads. Or like, actual fish-fish, ahi tuna is really good. Especially in seaweed salad."

"Of course it is! Tuna's the best!" Vince said cheerily. He looked down at his stomach as it growled, and said "I'm gonna go fish some up right now!" And he darted off toward the beach.

"That boy has a short-ass attention span," I said.

"That or he's gay," Mickey said.

"What is up with you and thinking everyone's gay?" I asked.

"Just saying, he ditched spending time with two beautiful older girls..." Mickey shrugged. "So you wanna go check out that book shop we passed a few streets back?"

"You say books, I'm there!" I said.

But no sooner had we set off than we were confronted with Cesar. Well, I say 'confronted,' but he didn't see us. He was too busy with a bunch of other girls.

"Ack!" Mickey stiffened.

"Just don't make eye contact," I whispered.

We tried to sneak past, but Kip shouted in a falsetto voice, "Oh prince Ceeee-sar~!"

Cesar shoved aside the girl he was currently all up on when he saw who he thought was calling to him. "Ah! The ladies Nicolea and Mishella!"

"God dammit, Kip!" Mickey hissed.

Kip responded only by cackling and rubbing his hands together.

Cesar approached us, pushing aside a lock of purple hair. "My ladies, this must be fate! Meeting here in this crowded market..." He held out arms. "I say we honor this with a tender embrace!"

"Or we could not," I said, backing away.

Mickey grabbed me. "What my dearest cousin means is that she'd be honored!"

"What?" I hissed, turning back to face her.

"Payback time, sister," she hissed before shoving me right into Cesar's arms.

And now I know what she meant when she said she knew he was straight! That pervert totally groped me!

Now I've gone through this scenario in my head before, and I always told myself that I'd smack the bastard that tried. But now that it was happening, all I could do was freeze in shock. In fact, I was still in the same awkward air-hug position I had taken on when he released me.

"Well, how was that?" he smirked.

"Y...You...You..." I stuttered.

"Speechless, I see," he said. "I have that effect on women."

"I think I'll take Princess Nickey somewhere to come down off her high," Mickey grinned before picking me up like a prop and carrying me off.

Once we were out of Cesar's general vicinity, I regained mobility, and jumped out of her arms. "What the HELL, Mickey?"

She shrugged. "What can I say? Payback's a bitch."

"That douchebag was grabbing my ass!" I screeched.

"Join the club," she said. "Now you know how I felt during yesterday's dance lesson."

"You bitch!" I shrieked, lunging at her and initiating a full-on catfight. No one seemed to notice or care, except Kip. And he was laughing. That's what got us to stop.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" I said, my voice distorted through Mickey's hands closed around my throat. "I think we're getting sidetracked here, ol' pal of mine."

"You're right," she said, words barely distinguishable due to my stretching her mouth. "The real enemy here is..." We released each other, and glared at Kip.

He stopped laughing. "Uh-oh..."

"YOU!" we both shouted, charging at him.

"Aiyeeeeee~!" he cried, flying off.

And we did chase him for a while, but we kinda got distracted once we actually found the book shop we had been looking for in the first place. And shopping for books always cheers us up, so after buying some interesting-looking books, and stopping for a cold drink, we went back to the palace in good spirits.

We were winding down in my room. I was reading and eating some of the chocolates we had bought, and Mickey was doing her hair in my mirror.

"So how's the book?" she asked, finishing her second braid and beginning to twist them up into buns on either side of her head and pinning them in place.

"Pretty good," I shrugged. "Almost like some of the shoujo manga back home. You know, the kind we read but don't tell anyone about."

"Sweet," she said.

"So how's the hair?" I asked.

She finished bun-ing her braids with one final pin. "You tell me."

"I say go ahead and try on the ribbons," I said.

"Okay..." She held them up as if they were a sacred treasure, before placing them over her braids. "Oh. My. God! I look so...So cute! I can't believe it, they're perfect, I—Huh?" She began floating up a few inches above the ground, spun around, and in a bright flash of light, was suddenly in a pretty Chinese-style dress.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Kip said, entering the room. "Your accessories are magical. Like your tiaras. You will need a dress for the ball, after all."

"You could knock," I said.

"You could close the door," he said right back.

I ignored this return-quip, and pulled out my seashell necklace. "I wonder what this does...?" I put it on, and with the same slight dizzy feeling and bright flash I felt when using the tiara, I was in a rather short, sleeveless blue dress with a stylishly-uneven hem. On my head was a cute little seashell-shaped barette, my shoes were now strappy blue wedge sandals, and on my neck, of course, was the necklace.

"You look so beautiful, Nickey!" Mickey cried.

I looked over my dress. "You really think so?" I asked, truning around to try and get a look at my back.

"I think it suits you," she said. "But you have to promise to let me use it sometimes!"

I smiled. "Only if you let me use your ribbons! That dress looks super-cool!"

Mickey giggled, and pulled out her tiara. "I'm glad we each have one of our own tiaras! No need to borrow these!"

"Mhm!" I nodded. I would've pulled mine out to emphasize at that point, but I didn't see it around my room. "Oh!" Yeah, it was in my bag. I don't know why I had carried it with me to the market. Go figure. But when I searched there, all I could find was suff I had bought earlier. No tiara. "Umm...On second thought, Mick..."

"Don't tell me you lost the tiara!" Kip cried.

"I never said that, Kip," I said in a growl. Looking down, I said more calmly, "but yes I did."

"You can't transform into the princess's dress without it~!" Kip cried.

"Whaddays mean? She has plenty of dresses that don't require transforming," I said.

"You can't wear those to balls or banquets!" Kip cried. "That would just be tacky!"

"They're better-looking than most of the stuff I have back home," I said.

"No, really? And you struck me as such a classy, well-dressed girl," Kip said with a roll of his eyes.

"Is that sarcasm I detect?" I growled, balling my right hand into a fist.

"Worry about your style-blindness later, you need to find that tiara~!" Kip exclaimed, pushing me out the door.

As I was running, Mickey caught up. "So how is it running in heels?"

"Would these count as heels?" I asked.

"I count wedges as heels," Mickey said. "So how is it?"

"Easier than I thought, really," I said. "People are always complaining about how hard it is..."

"Maybe it's the magic?" she offered.

"Could be," I said.

"So where we lookin' first?" she asked.

"Probably the market. That's the only feasible place I can think of having lost it," I said.

We reached the market fairly quickly, and all three of us split up. As I was on my hands and knees, searching the ground and crawling between two older women fighting over a mink stole, I heard Mickey call out "Niiiickey!"

I shot up, ending up with the stole the women were fighting over on my shoulders. "'Dyou find it?" I called. I turned to the ladies. "Excuse me." I threw aside the stole and rushed to where Mickey's voice was coming from, followed shortly by Kip, who had also heard her. "Hey! Did ya find it?"

"I found something better!" She said, clinging to Kiefer's arm.

"Hello," he said in deadpan, looking unamused as usual. "What's got you two in such a fuss?"

"Well, um...I kinda lost my tiara..." I said shyly. "You seen it, right? Gold, got a bunch of jewels on it..."

"Looks like this one," Mickey said, pulling out her own tiara.

"Oh!" Kiefer's face brightened. "Why...Yes! A boorish young noble girl with pink pigtails was carrying that very same tiara! You mean it was yours?"

"Very likely it was," I said.

"Isabel!" Kip exclaimed.

"Oh yeah! The young, foul-tempered Zirconium girl," I said.

"Won't you help us look, Kiefer?" Mickey pleaded.

He looked shocked for a few seconds, before responding, "I'm sorry. I have something that needs tending to right away." And he removed her from his arm, though this time he did so gently rather than yanking himself free of her. "I did see the girl over by Jive Park. I hope that helps," he said before taking off.

"Hmm..." I muttered.

"What?" Mickey asked.

"Nothin'," I said. "Kiefer just seems...nicer than he did the last time we met up with him." And before she could argue that he was always nice, I said "To Jive Park! Wherever that is!"

Kip zipped past us. "Follow me!"

When we got to Jive Park, we split up again. Fortunaely, there were less people around than in the square. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, none were Isabel.

"Damn, damn, damn," I muttered, sitting on the edge of the fountain. "If I don't find that tiara, I'll never hear the end of it from Kip..." I groaned. "I can just hear it now. 'Well a fine princess you turned out to be. You lost the Royal Tiara. Now everyone'll know you're a fake for sure!'"

"Hey! You're Princess Nicolea, right?"

I looked up to see the chick magnet from the banquet looking down at me.

"Oh! Yeah, Princess Nicolea, that's totally me!" I nodded. "And my tutor told me your name. Umm...uh, it's Lucas Stoppard, right?"

He laughed. "Close. I'm Klaus Rosencrans."

"Nice to meet you. Well, nice to be formally introduced," I said, sticking out my hand for him to shake. When all he did was look at it quizzically, I nervously withdrew it and dipped into a curtsy.

"And you as well," he said with a bow. "Now, something seems to be troubling you."

"Oh that," I said. "Are you familiar with Isabel Zirconium?"

"Passingly, yes," Klaus said.

"I have reason to believe she stole something of mine," I said. "So Kip and Mickey and I are looking for her."

"Oh my, that's terrible!" Klaus said. "I should help too!"

"Um, you don't have to..." I said.

"No, nonsense! It's the least I can do in return for you rescuing me the other night!" he insisted.

"Well I mean, I wouldn't wanna put you out..."

"Of course you wouldn't. And I know this kingdom quite well, so you wouldn't have to lead me around," he assured me.

"You really don't need to—" Wait, did he say he knew the kingdom? That might be useful. "...I mean, welcome to the team, Flint."

"Klaus, actually."

"Klaus, right."

At that point, Mickey and Kip approached us.

"No luck," Mickey said. "What about with you?"

"Well, we didn't find Isabel, but I found us a new search buddy!" I said.

"Prince Klaus. It's a pleasure," he said with a bow.

"...You too," Mickey said before pulling me aside. "Conference!"

"What gives?" I whispered.

"You aren't into this guy, are you?" she asked back in a whisper.

"So what if I am?"

"He's so...so..."

"Okay, so he does seem kinda so-so, but hey, we just met him. First impressions aren't everything. Besides, he says he knows the Flower Kingdom fairly well."

"You sure that won't lead him to figure out that we're just BS'ing this whole royalty thing?"

"We haven't run into many problems with people catching on yet. We keep running into naive people's the thing."

"Or people who don't know Bizarro-Us very well."

"That's true. Oh, and just for the record, I'm all about Liam, so don't worry about this guy."

"Hey!" Kip popped up between us, whispering like he had been part of the conversation the whole time. "Are we gonna look or what?"

"Stay out of this, Kip!" we shouted at the same time.

"So are we ready to start looking?" Klaus asked.

"Oh! Yeah, totally!" I said.

"All right. Let's start back at Samba Square," Klaus said.

"But we already looked there," Mickey said.

"The criminal always returns to the scene of the crime," Klaus reasoned.

We stared at him before Mickey said "I knew he was bland. His dialogue is clichés."

I shrugged. "It's our best lead at the moment."

So back to Samba Square we went. We didn't have time to split up before we ran across another familiar face. And knowing my luck, said familiar face happened to be Liam, carrying grocery bags.

Oh! Nickey! Lady Mishella!" he exclaimed, approaching us. "Oh! And Prince Klaus as well!"

"Hello, Liam," Klaus nodded.

"Um...Hey, Liam..." I said.

"Nickey, is that a new dress you have on?" he asked. "It looks lovely on you!"

I blushed. "You think so?" I twirled a bit for him. "I mean, I wasn't sure about it at first, but..."

"Ahem!" Kip said.

"Oh yeah," I said. I took a breath to begin telling the story, before thinking this course of action over, and instead flinging myself at Liam, holding to the lapels of his jacket and faking tears. "Oh Liam, it was horrible! This awful girl with hideously-gaudy pink hair stole my beloved tiara! I just don't know what I'll do if I don't get it back!"

"Oh, poor thing..." Liam said, patting me on the back. "Who was this girl?"

I sniffed. "Isabel Zirconium. Oh, won't you help me find that wretched girl, Liam?"

"I would," he said, "but I have to get these groceries home."

I pulled away from him, and looked down to see that a few grocery bags laid beside his feet, where he had dropped them when I grabed hold of him. "Oh, you were shopping!" I picked up the bags, sheepishly holding them out to him.

He nodded. "I was just buying some vegetables. Onions, potatoes, and...Huh?" He searched through the bag. "What happened to my carrots?"

"It seems everything's going missing today," Klaus observed.

"I don't think this is much of a mystery," Mickey said, pointing to where Kip was happily munching on a carrot.

I walked over to him, and smacked him on the head, causing him to drop the last small piece of carrot he had left.

"Ow! What was that...Oh..." He looked up to see me glaring at him.

"Those are Liam's carrots!" I shouted.

"Were Liam's carrots," Kip said. "I, uh...kinda already went through them..."

I grabbed him. "Now listen here, you vile, voracious little vermin, you can insult me, you can humiliate me, you can wake me up at ungodly hours, but you will NOT mess with my love interest! Now you—"

"Nickey, really, it's okay," Liam said. "At least he enjoyed them."

"You sure, Liam?" I asked.

"Oh of course, it's no trouble," he said with a sweet, warm smile.

I released Kip. "Liam, you're just too sweet, you know that?"

"Princess, don't we need to find your tiara?" Klaus asked.

I turned back to him. "...My what?"

"Your tiara. The one you lost?" Klaus asked.

"Oh! Tiara! Yeah, we can do that," I said.

"Good luck," Liam said.

"Bye, Liam!" I said, slowest of all our adventuring party to leave him behind.

Once we were away from him, Mickey spoke up. "Wasn't your behavior a little contradictory back there?"

"I fail to find a basis for your argument," I said.

"Well, you were all upset at Cesar earlier today, and just a few minutes ago, you were all grabbing on Liam."

"I did not _grope_ Liam," I responded. "Besides, you're one to talk. You're like a goddamn magnet in the presence of Kiefer."

"Touché," Mickey said.

"What are you two talking about?" Klaus asked.

"Nothing, nothing!" I waved my hands to illustrate this point. "So any more ideas on where to look?"

"Well, the Zirconiums live on Rhumba Beach, right? Why not check there?"

The first thing we saw upon arrival at the beach was Vince, fishing pole in hand, walking in our direction and whistling. When he noticed us, his face brightened, and he waved.

"Hey, guys! What'cha up to?"

"Nickey got her tiara stolen by some kid named Isabel," Mickey explained.

"Really? Like, right off your head?" Vince asked.

"No, apparently she snatched it from my bag," I said.

"Really?" Vince said. "Totally cool! I'll bet she like, buried it somewhere or covered it with worms or—" He stopped when he noticed the four of us glaring at him. "...I mean that's horrible."

"Do you know anything, Vince?" Klaus asked.

Vince held his hand to his chin in thought. "...Well, is Isabel that really loud, pinky girl?"

"Yeah, you saw her?" Mickey asked.

"Yeah. She said something about hating having to go to dance practice or something," Vince shrugged.

I hugged him. "Thanks, little guy!" I said, and took off back towards the palace.

"Have fun playing detective!" he called after us.

Fortunately for us, the dance hall wasn't very spacious, so we wouldn't have to look around much. When we arrived, a cursory glance told us that Isabel wasn't there.

"Hello, girls," Tony said, hopping up to us in bunny form. "Oh, and Prince Klaus. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the dance hall is closing up for today."

"Oh, we were just here looking for Isabel. She kinda took something of mine," I explained.

"Oh no, that's terrible!" Tony exclaimed. "Well I'm afraid ou arrived just a bit too late, but I can tell you where to find her. She always goes to Vienesse Waltz Lake after her lessons."

"And off we go again..." Mickey sighed.

"Thanks, Tony, seeya tomorrow!" I called, rushing out of the dance hall.

I purposely fell back a little to let Klaus take the lead again, since I had no idea where the hell Vienesse Waltz Lake was. Klaus, true to his word, did, and we ended up at a beautiful little lake east of the castle. The only one there, however, was the jerky prince in black.

"Hey, it's Prince Luciano!" Klaus said. "Maybe he can help us!"

He didn't seem to notice us approaching. Which was natural, I guess. He had his back to us and, upon closer inspection, had his eyes closed. He sighed, and said "The ocean sure is relaxing..."

"...He does realize we're at the lake, right?" I asked.

"Prince Luciano is kind of notorious for his poor sense of direction," Klaus said.

Mickey sat down beside him. "The ocean IS relaxing, Luciano."

I bent down to her level. "YOU realize we're at the lake, right?"

"Of course I do, but I'm not about to piss him off and make him not wanna help us," she responded.

Luciano finally snapped out of his trance. "Huh? Who are you?"

"Me?" she said. "I'm Lady Mishella, cousin of the princess."

"Hi!" I waved.

"Oh. You," he said with an expression I couldn't really read too well.

"Listen, did you see a girl with pink pigtails? 'Cause she kinda stole something from my cousin," Mickey said.

"Yeah, I saw someone like that. She left a couple minutes ago, said something about forgetting something at the practice hall." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Good thing, too. She was really annoying."

"Dammit, how did we miss her?" I hissed.

"Backtracking! The best part of any game!" Mickey sighed exasperatedly, standing up.

We retraced our steps back to the dance hall, and finally, finally found Isabel inside.

"Hey! There it is! Right in her hand!" I exclaimed, catching sight of my tiara.

"Oh, you want this back?" she smirked before throwing it to the ground. "Fine, take it! Like I'd want your gaudy jewelry anyway!"

"What a rude little girl," I muttered, picking up the tiara as Isabel left.

"Well at least you got it back," Klaus said.

"Yeah. Thanks for all your help. Really, you did more than you know," I said.

"No problem," Klaus said. "By the way, what's so important about that tiara?"

I sighed, rolling my eyes. "It lets me fly, Klaus."

"Huh? Oh!" He laughed. "You're such a kidder, Princess!"

"I get that a lot," I said. "Well thanks again for all your help, but I'm kinda tired. I think my cousin and I are about ready to retire for the evening."

"All right, see you later, then!" Klaus said.

As we exited the practice hall, we saw that Isabel hadn't left the grounds yet, and had apparently encountered Vince.

"Hey, you're Isabel Zirconium, right?" he asked.

"So what if I am?" she responded. She gasped, leaning back a little when Vince leaned in mere centimeters from her face. He circled her once, studying her. "What do you think you're doing, you weird little kid?"

"Oh, nothin'," Vince said. "This is just the first time I've seen you up close. And there's a question I can't get out of my mind."

"Yeeees?" Isabel asked, smiling and fluffing one of her pigtails.

"Why'd they let such an ugly girl be a noble?"

"WHAT?" Isabel shrieked.

"Ha ha!" Vince jeered, running off.

Isabel gave chase. "Get back here, you little shrimp! No one calls Isabel Zirconium ugly and lives!"

"Catch me if you caaaan!" Vince sang over his shoulder.

I yawned and walked off towards my room.

"No witty comment?" Mickey asked, following me.

"Too tired. Ask me in the morning," I responded.

And with a day like that, can you blame me? I'm almost looking forward to dance practice tomorrow! That at least won't be as taxing!

* * *

**And that's it for the most eventful chapter yet! Questions? Comments? Love? Hate? I love ti all! Stay tuned for the next chapter hopefully in a faster update!**


	5. He Gives Me Something

**Aaaaaah, it's been foreveeeeer! I do wanna continue with this, though! Don't lose heart, faithful readers and reviewers! Off we go!**

* * *

"Okay, wait. Stop. Stop, stop, stop. Can we stop?"

As soon as I said this, the music-from-nowhere immediately stopped, as suddenly and cleanly as if someone had hit Pause on an mp3 player. One of these days, I was gonna figure out what made this ballroom tick. But before that, there was a specific, immediate problem that needed to be addressed.

"Princess, I don't understand. You danced to this song just fine when you practiced it on your own." Even Tony, in his infinite patience, I could tell was growing exasperated with me.

"I know, Tony, but when I'm doing it with someone, it just feels...awkward..." I admitted.

Okay, here's the deal. Apparently, someone had decided to turn the Swan Lake ouverture into a Latin-style dance. And it's really sexy, which I wasn't aware of until I started doing it with my dance teacher, who is a bunny, and probably about twice my age. I mean, at least he's no creeper like Caesar, but still. Can you say 'Do not want?'

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not a purde or anything, but I kind of have this rule that I don't date or flirt with or come on to or whatever guys that are over five years my senior. Especially since the one time I broke that rule resulted in my last relationship and all the drama it brought.

"Perhaps what you need is a different partner?" Tony sensed this without me even needing to suggest it. Which saved me a lot of trouble in worrying if I was going to offend him.

"Yeah! Like me!" Vince piped up from his position in the corner beside Mickey.

"I don't think so, Vince," I said quickly. "Nothin' personal, little guy, but if I danced with you like that, Chris Hansen would be asking me to have a seat over there."

"Oh, it hasn't stopped you before, Nickey. You've always liked younger guys. I mean, you have had sex dreams about Jake Long before," Mickey said.

"Hey, that was one time, and we agreed that it was an accident brought on by homesickness and seeing a cute guy on the bus!" I insisted.

"And Commissioner Vallejo," Mickey continued.

"YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T TELL ANYONE!" I shouted.

"My bad," Mickey squeaked.

"Whatever, I'm out," I sighed, and turned to walk out of the practice hall.

"Wait, where are you going?" Vince asked.

"I dunno, I need to be alone right now," I snapped before walking out the door and slamming it behind me.

But where to be alone...? If I go back to my room, I'm likely to be accosted by Kip. I can't go into the palace cause of that damn guard dog...

But then I found what I was looking for. I hoped. A building standing only one story tall but about as wide as the block my dorm was on. And there was no one around said large building. That was a good sign. I got closer. No guards, furry or otherwise. Even better sign.

I walked in and let the quiet envelop me. What is it about large spaces that make quiet that much more enjoyable?

Yeah, this whole building was just one big room. With nice high ceilings and about seven decorative chandeliers, and no furniture save for a few tables and several chairs shunted off to the corners and a piano near an orchestra pit off on the other side of the building.

I sighed and slumped into the nearest chair I could get to. What was up with this? I mean, it's not like I'm a bad dancer or anything. Back in high school, everyone called me "the white girl that could shake it" every time I went to a party. Of course, now I'm having to learn waltzes and shit...

I stood up, thinking to myself, 'Well, Nickey, there's no one to stop you. And they kind of intended for people to dance here. Let's see if you still got it.'

I took a leap forward, and slid to a stop before swishing my hips and stepping lightly, singing the first song that came to mind.

"I must've died and gone to Heaven, 'cause it was quarter past eleven, on that Saturday in nineteen ninety-nine. Right across from where I'm standin', on the dance floor she was landin', it was clear that she was from another time..."

And I was lost in my own world. I had effectively become a one-woman dance party, a goddess of soul. Well, I say that, but I probably looked really dumb to anyone watching, and I was probably insulting funk musicians everywhere with my singing. But no one would ever see this.

"She's just a cosmic girl! Oh, yeah. From another galaxy. My heart's at zero gravity. She's from a cosmic wo—"

"Nickey?"

"ACK!" Were I clumsier, I would've fallen. As it stood, I abruptly stopped the spin I had gone into, stumbled a bit, and regained my balance before seeing who had addressed me. "Oh! Liam! H-Hi..."

I immediately crossed my arms over my body, as had been my reflex for any time someone had walked in on my dancing ever since my roommate and her boyfriend had done so last month. Of course, this time, I was wearing more than just stuff from Victoria's Secret. Though if Liam HAD walked in on me while I was in nothing but lingerie...

No! Don't think about that! Dammit! Having dirty thoughts about a prince has to be breaking some sort of law!

"What are you doing here?" Liam asked.

"I, uh...I needed some me time, you know?" I shrugged sheepishly. "What about you?"

"About the same," he said, raising and lowering his right shoulder. "The palace was getting too hectic. Apparently, Prince Vince sat in on Lady Isabel's dance lesson, and from the sound of it, he threw a box of worms at her."

"He did what?!"

"Oh, I'm sure it was hyperbole. This is Isabel we're talking about. Anyway, she's chasing him throughout the palace, and I just wanted to get away from all that noise," Liam said.

"So you're havin' one of those days too, huh?" I sighed.

"Is something wrong, Nickey?" Liam asked.

"Oh." I shrugged. "Eh, just having some trouble with this one dance..."

"You didn't seem to be having trouble a few minutes ago," Liam said. "That's quite a...unique style. Where did you learn it?"

Watching the video for "Virtual Insanity" like fifty times when I should've been studying for finals last semester. "Oh, uhh...It's from overseas." There, that wasn't a lie, right? I changed the subject away from stuff from a world he wasn't supposed to know about. "No, it's this stupid rhumba I'm having trouble with. I mean, I got the movements down, but it just...doesn't...feel...right."

"Why don't you dance with me?" he said with a smile.

Wait, was this boy listening to a word I just said?!

My thoughts must've been plain on my face, because he backpedaled. "No, I mean...I don't mean the dance you're having trouble with. Just dance with me for the sake of dancing. Maybe if you dance for fun rather than out of obligation, you'll be able to confront the problems you're having in your lessons."

Well, that did sound kind of inviting. i sure wouldn't mind dancing with a guy as cute as Liam. And he was a fun guy to be around, despite the fact that my contact with him had been very limited so far, and what contact I did have with him consisted of his very presence negating the icy heartbreaker skills I had spent the better part of my teenage years perfecting.

I took his hand. "Challenge accepted," I said simply. "But what're we gonna do about music?"

He chuckled. "Well, you didn't seem to have a problem providing it."

I froze. Not that I was embarrassed about singing for an audience, oh no, I've always been a hammy little showoff. But he kinda put me on the spot; I had no clue what to sing.

"Umm..." Well, I was kind of in a Jamiroquai mood. Maybe "Love Foolosophy." No, that kind of wasn't a song I wanted to sing to a guy that I liked...Hmm...

"I got it!" I exclaimed after a few minutes of thinking. I began to sway my hips, and sang. "When I met you, you were so unique. You had a little thing I'd love to keep. And every movement carried much mystique. I knew right then I'd carry on, to you I knew my heart belonged..."

He put his hands around my waist, and we glided across the floor, not caring about technique or artistry or whose feet went where...

And somehow, no one's feet were getting stepped on. I didn't feel awkward or stiff or shakey. And Liam's hands didn't feel out of place on my waist. On the contrary, it felt completely natural. I wanted to stay there in his arms, forever and ever...

...Is this what dancing with Klaus felt like for Cynthia?

"You know now you, you give me something..." I continued singing as Liam dipped me. "Something that nobody else has got..." He lifted me into the air, before setting me down once more. "And this love...that I've been wanting...Oh, babe, it's turnin' out...to be...too fast...to..."

"Stop!"

I opened my eyes. When had I even closed my eyes?! I looked up to see Liam's face was closer than it should've been in a dance, and found that I was pressed up against him, standing on my tiptoes, lips puckered.

Liam's eyes shot open as well, and he was just as shocked at our current position as I. "Oh! Nickey, I...um..." He looked over to the doorway, to which I followed suit, and standing in the door was Tony. "A-Ah! Master Tony!" His hands flew to his sides, and we scooted away from each other.

"It...um..." I stammered.

"The princess and I were..." Liam began.

"We didn't skip class to make out!" I blurted out, covering my mouth immediately after. Jeez, nice reflex. The one time it was true, too...

"Congratulations, Princess," Tony said, approaching us. "You performed the rhumba perfectly!"

"I...Wait, I did?" I looked to Liam. "We did?"

"Yes, it appears you just needed the right partner," Tony said. "Now I'm perfectly confident in your abilities for the dance contest in two days."

"For the what in what-what?" I asked.

"Yes, didn't you know?" Tony asked.

"Aheh..." I stepped towards the doorway. "If you gentlemen'll escuse me..."

* * *

When I threw open the door to my sitting room, Mickey and Kip were playing cards. They dropped their hands when I shouted "Why didn't you hoes TELL me there was a dance contest in two days?!"

"You would've heard if you hadn't skipped," Mickey shrugged. "Typical Nickey, missing information 'cause she skips class..."

"You coulda' came and told me!" I accused her.

"I would've, but you just kinda stormed off and didn't tell anyone where to," Mickey shrugged.

"Okay, fair enough," I said before turning on Kip, "but YOU...There IS no excuse! You're an advisor! Advise!"

"My official title is 'royal tutor,'" Kip corrected.

"I...Gah...I can't conjugate that verb without sounding awkward, you furry little bastard!" I shouted. "And you still don't have an excuse!"

"I was too busy trying to get Prince Liam into the ballroom," he shrugged.

"Wait. That was you?!" Once again, Kip had tampered with my life. I raised my fist. But then again, I had danced with Liam...I lowered my fist. But I hated it when pwople that weren't me tried to control my life. I raised it again "I...Can't decide whether to hit you or not!"

"Yeah, well good luck with that," Kip said casually, floating out of the room. "Don't stay up too late, girls. You need your beauty sleep. Especially you, Nickey. Prince Liam won't like a girl with bags underneath her eyes."

"One day..." I seethed.

"You think you'd be more grateful to the little guy," Mickey said. "He's setting you up with Liam. If anyone has a right to be upset at him, it's me. Where's my lovin' from Kiefer?"

"No, that's not the point!" I insisted. "I could set myself up with Liam! I just hate it when other people try to do it for me! You remember how pissed I was when you and the others tried to set me up on blind dates back in high school."

"Just be thankful for what you got," Mickey shrugged. She exited the sitting room. "'Night."

"...But I don't WANT to drive a great big Cadillac!" I exclaimed before following her.

* * *

**Chapter complete! Nickey's got it bad for Liam, Mickey's holding down the fort by being less temperamental, Vince is mischievous, Tony is well-meaning, and Kip be trollin'. All is right with the world.**

**And I know, the ballroom scene isn't based off a canon event, but I kinda wanted to deviate a little from the main storyline. Pull some people out of their comfort zone and whatnot. Tell me if ya liked it or hated it or whatever. It'll help me know whether or not to write more of my own events in the future. That and any other suggestions are much, much welcome. Til next time!**


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